Summary: On the brink of defeat, Limerick FC found its savior. The new guy, Marcus Diamond. A 90th minute equalizer salvages a point. What an introduction to the club for the 20-year-old. Take a bow.


Rating: 7.0 - Ugly game from both sides. But, when it matters the most, we found a way. They all count the same. Not pretty, but effective.

Player of Game: Marcus Diamond, Limerick FC (7.0)

Summary: In front of over 5,000 spectators, Limerick FC crumbles. Three first-half goals in 14 minutes does them in. Instead of recovering, Limerick picks up four yellow cards instead.

Rating: 6.9 - Highest on the team, even after getting my first yellow card. That just shows how bad we really were.

Player of Game: Karl Sheppard, Cork City (8.9)

Summary: Limerick FC smacked around for a second straight game. This one more respectable, holding Shamrock to 0-0 until the 77th minute before breaking. After the game, the team got the news they feared...

Marcus Diamond had twisted his ankle in the 24th minute
and was going to have to miss a few weeks.

Rating: 6.6 - Tried to make a quick cut and got ahead of myself. I attempted to just walk it off, but that only made things worse. Doctor says I'm out for three to five weeks. So, yeah, pretty bad.

Player of Game: Georgie Kelly, Shamrock Rovers (8.5)

Summary: A rainy start drys up for a hectic sprint finish. Sprint trains struggled to form and a free for all eventually broke out. Belgian Milan Menten got the best jump to grab the win.

Result: 7th - I lost Ben Swift's wheel with about 700 meters left. I'll take a top 10, also teammate Gabriel Cullaigh with a solid 5th place.

Summary: Nobody wanted to risk a long-range strike, so a steep incline to the finish would decide the winner.


Experienced 40-year-old veteran Alejandro Valverde, in his final season, shows he still has some punch left in his legs. His first victory since winning a stage at Paris-Nice last season. He is the second-oldest cyclist still racing — Franco Pellizotti is still going strong at 42 years old.

The top seven finishers received a 18-second gap to the rest.

Result: 11th - Started the climb near the front, but slowly faded. Still, not a bad result. Losing 18 seconds is a shame, not sure where the officials saw a gap to warrant that.

Summary: A twist in the road with 8kms to go causes a crash. Over half of the field has been left behind. Looks like all the favourites, however, have found themselves in the lead group of 40 cyclists.


Photo finish at the line! Jacob Scott from one of the local teams JLT Condor gets the win. Four British riders finish inside the Top 5.

Result: 4th - Missed the crash and followed Scott's wheel to a nice finish. Weird seeing my former team take the victory though.

Summary: The stage everyone was waiting for. Everything will be decided here. The morning breakaway, which includes two INM cyclists (Nicholas Roche and Chris Herbert), tops out at seven minutes. And of course, it wouldn't be the final stage of the tour here in the United Kingdom without some rain. It's a downpour as well.


The rain has stopped. 20kms to go. The morning BOTD still holds a 50-second gap as the peloton is down to just 14 cyclists after the final categorized climb.


The rain has started again. 5.6kms to go. Marcus Diamond is going for it. He could see his two teammates in the breakaway struggling and decided now is a perfect time to strike if wants to make up 28 seconds and win on home soil. Bold move.


Valverde and crew aren't going to let Diamond get away that easy. The chase is on. Meanwhile, 30 seconds ahead of Diamond, Pierre-Luc Perichon is holding on as the last breakaway rider.


Diamond can see the banner, and catches a glimpse of Perichon. The crowd is going crazy. While Diamond doesn't need to beat Perichon to win the tour, it does give him something to chase down while being chased.


No, a rookie mistake. Diamond takes a quick glance back. He doesn't have the time to do that. Focus on the road ahead kid.


The lapse in concentration and now Diamond is seeing cyclists fly by in his peripheral vision. He was a kilometer away from a stunning result.


While the favourites rush by Diamond, Perichon has somehow held off the field today for an unexpected breakaway win on the final stage. Well done by the Frenchman.

Result: 9th, 6th GC - Some could argue that I should have stayed in the group and tried to win the stage from a selective sprint. I wanted to win the tour, not the stage. I have no regrets. Well, maybe looking back wasn't the smartest thing to do.

Still, 6th overall is an improvement over my last two times here.

Summary: No time to celebrate. Close sprint finish to cap Stage 1.

Result: 6th - Was in the mix, but not quite quick enough.

Summary: After what happened yesterday, Ruslan Tieubayev makes sure to win this sprint by a bigger margin to show off his arms.

Result: 16th - Picked the wrong wheel.

Summary: Stage 1 winner wins a three-way battle for the stage and GC win against Simon Spilak and Harm Vanhoucke.

Result: 63th, 54th GC - Not a great day. Got dropped early on the climb while I was pacing myself. Slowly worked my way up. Finished +5'13" on the leaders. Mountains aren't really my thing.

Summary: One of the youngest strikers in the league, 16-year-old David Whyte, sneaks behind Bohemians' backline in the 69th minute for the game-winning goal. His second goal of his young career.

Rating: 6.8 - Got 51 minutes of action and didn't make much of an impact. At least I didn't re-injury myself.

Player of Game: Aidan Friel, Limerick FC (8.0)

Incredible scenes! England gets a 58th minute equalizer from Harry Kane and watches Raheem Sterling miss chance after chance to eventually force penalties. Tied at 3-3 in PKs, Jordan Pickford denied Alen Halilovic and then Eric Dier got to be the hero with the game-winning kick. England's reward? A date with 2014 World Cup winners Germany in the quarterfinals. It doesn't get any easier.

A pair of goals by free agent striker Roman Rosler does England in. Germany also went down a man in the 51st minute with Tjorben Ampfert getting a red card.

Hard to get more thrilling than those semifinals.

Summary: Our cameras struggled to comprehend how bizarre that finish was. With about 9kms to go a group of nine cyclists broke free from the peloton. That didn't work and they were caught with 4kms to go. That allowed another three cyclists to attack with 3kms to go as the sprint trains couldn't control the pace.

Those three escaped with Marcus Diamond trying to bridge the gap. Diamond couldn't quite reach the leaders and was caught by a few sprinters behind him. Also, not to mention, there was fairly big crash on the last bend that took out 30 riders.

Result: 7th - What just happened? At one point I had to just shut off the team radio and just ride on instincts. All the shouting was giving me a headache.

Date	Race	Winner
2-Jun	Heistse Pijl	Christophe Laporte
3-Jun	Gran Premio Città di Lugano	Valerio Conti
3-Jun	Critérium du Dauphiné	Marc Soler
4-Jun	Memorial Philippe van Coningsloo	Edward Planckaert
7-Jun	GP du Canton d'Argovie	Jarlinson Pantano
8-Jun	Oberösterreichrundfahrt	Hermann Pernsteiner
9-Jun	Tour de Suisse	Nairo Quintana
9-Jun	Tour of Malopolska	José Manuel Diaz
10-Jun	Ronde van Limburg	Fabio Jakobsen
10-Jun	Rund um Köln	Jenthe Biermans
13-Jun	Ster ZLM Tour	Dylan Sunderland
13-Jun	Tour de Beauce	A. Gebreigzabhier
13-Jun	Tour of Slovenia	Richard Carapaz
14-Jun	Route d'Occitanie	Alexandre Geniez
15-Jun	Dwars door het Hageland	Dylan Teuns
16-Jun	Fyen Rundt	Clément Venturini
17-Jun	Elfstedenronde	Alejandro Valverde
17-Jun	GP Horsens Posten	Benjamin Prades
19-Jun	Halle - Ingooigem	Dylan Teuns
20-Jun	Adriatica Ionica Race	Fausto Masnada
27-Jun	I.W.T. Jong Maar Moedig	Sean De Bie
28-Jun	Belgian Championships (ITT)	Laurens De Plus
28-Jun	Danish Championships (ITT)	Mads Pedersen
28-Jun	Portuguese Championships (ITT)	Nelson Oliveira
28-Jun	Polish Championships (ITT)	Maciej Bodnar
28-Jun	Dutch Championships (ITT)	Tom Dumoulin
28-Jun	French Championships (ITT)	Alexis Gougeard
28-Jun	German Championships (ITT)	Tony Martin
28-Jun	Austrian Championships (ITT)	Georg Preidler
28-Jun	Slovenian Championships (ITT)	Primož Rogli�
28-Jun	Norwegian Championships (ITT)	Iver Skaarseth
28-Jun	Kazakh Championships (ITT)	Maxim Shirshov
28-Jun	Irish Championships (ITT)	Ryan Mullen
28-Jun	Canadian Championships (ITT)	Nigel Ellsay
28-Jun	USA Championships (ITT)	Taylor Phinney
28-Jun	Italian Championships (ITT)	Gianni Moscon
28-Jun	Russian Championships (ITT)	Anton Vorobyev
28-Jun	Swiss Championships (ITT)	Stefan Küng
28-Jun	Great Britain Championships (ITT)	Geraint Thomas
28-Jun	Ukrainian Championships (ITT)	Mark Padun
28-Jun	Spanish Championships (ITT)	Jonathan Castroviejo
28-Jun	Slovak Championships (ITT)	Peter Sagan
28-Jun	Czech Championships (ITT)	Leopold König
1-Jul	Danish Championships
1-Jul	Swiss Championships
1-Jul	Kazakh Championships
1-Jul	Canadian Championships
1-Jul	Norwegian Championships
1-Jul	USA Championships
1-Jul	Russian Championships
1-Jul	Portuguese Championships
1-Jul	Polish Championships
1-Jul	Czech Championships
1-Jul	Ukrainian Championships
1-Jul	Great Britain Championships	Marcus Diamond In*
1-Jul	Irish Championships
1-Jul	Slovenian Championships
1-Jul	Italian Championships
1-Jul	Slovak Championships
1-Jul	French Championships
1-Jul	Austrian Championships
1-Jul	Spanish Championships
1-Jul	Belgian Championships
1-Jul	Course Cycliste de Solidarnosc
1-Jul	German Championships
1-Jul	Dutch Championships
4-Jul	Sibiu Cycling Tour
6-Jul	GP Internacional Torres Vedras
7-Jul	Tour de France
7-Jul	Int. Österreich Rundfahrt
8-Jul	White Spot / Delta Road Race
15-Jul	Tour of Qinghai Lake
25-Jul	Grand Prix Cerami
25-Jul	Prueba Villafranca
26-Jul	La Tour Alsace
27-Jul	VOO-Tour de Wallonie
29-Jul	GP Kranj
31-Jul	Circuito de Getxo
31-Jul	RideLondon-Surrey Classic	Marcus Diamond In

Summary: A scoreless first half heated up in the final 45 minutes. Shane Tracy scored early into the second half, St. Pat's answered back in the 81st minute. That set-up 93rd minute winner for Limerick's Padraig Amond. Breakaway goal with a far post finish to stun the home fans.

Rating: 6.9 - I struggled with my fitness in my first game back, but the team didn't have a sub for me when Shane Duggan and Evan Osam both had to come off injured in the first half. I was dropped to right back to save some energy. Luckily, I survived without hurting myself.

Player of Game: Padraig Amond, Limerick FC (8.0)

Summary: The scenes. The largest home crowd (4,418) that Limerick has seen in years gets treated to a classic. Padraig Amond puts in two when all seemed lost to force extra time. Limerick goalkeeper Aaron Galvin made save after save before Achille Campion buried a rebound at the other end to set off a wild celebration.

Rating: 7.4 - Had some good moments, but this was a team win for sure. We celebrated this one well into the night.

Player of Game: Aidan Friel, Limerick FC (8.8)

Summary: Limerick continues its good run of form with a third win in a row. Marcus Diamond scores twice, including this upper 90 banger in the 37th minute. The 20-year-old coming back from his injury stronger than ever. A difficult player to contain in the midfield.


Rating: 9.1 - Big games call for big moments. The other goal was a simple tap-in off a cross by Lee Lynch.

Player of Game: Marcus Diamond, Limerick FC (9.1)

Summary: There are nightmares that don't start as worse as this. Thirty seconds into the game, Isael breaks through for a goal that puts 13,170 home fans in a frenzy. This isn't the welcome to Kazakhstan that Limerick FC wanted.

Things only got worse when Marcus Diamond was shown a second yellow card in the 68th minute to receive his first red card in his career. The final score should have been a lot worse than 2-0.

Rating: 6.4 - Angry got the best of me. Stuck my foot into one too many challenges and was shown off. Let my team down here and was suspended for the home leg... which Limerick won 1-0 despite going down to 10-men once again. Kairat advances on aggregate, 2-1. Ouch.

Player of Game: Georgii Zhukov, Kairat (8.5)

Summary: Fitness was a problem on both sides, as both teams were coming off Europa League games three days prior. Martyn Leigh thought he had the winner in the 71st minute, but timely super sub Achille Campion surfaces again with an equalizer in the 81st minute.

Rating: 6.7 - Nothing to see here.

Player of Game: Achille Campion, Limerick FC (8.1)

- Each member gets 5.0 points to spread however they like over the 36 attributes listed above. One post per member.
- Stats work on a decimal system starting at 1.0.
- Stats are bumped up in FM when they hit that number, ex. 2.9 = 2 in-game, and 13.4 = 13 stat in-game.
- The decimal numbers will remain hidden.
- There is a threshold for each stat when more points are needed to increase that stat. It's start off on a 1-to-1 scale where 1 point equals 1 stat upgrade. However, the scales get exponentially further and further apart the closer that stat gets to the maximum of 20. The increasing scale will also remain a mystery and is different from the cycling progression scale.
-Comment below to provide stat upgrades.

Summary: Only 29 cyclists have arrived back in London after a hilly adventure through the countryside. Big Ben greets them upon arrival...


... and the London Eye.


Sprinters are having trouble organizing, so an attack by Loic Vliegen with 5kms to go. Dangerous attempt if the sprinters can't work together.


That was never going to work. Under 2kms to go.


Cofidis with the leadout. Alongside them? Marcus Diamond.


Cofidis and Diamond fade hard. And a three-way photo finish at the line goes to Jasper De Buyst from Lotto Soudal. Beating out hometown hopeful Ben Swift and Italian Simone Consonni.

Result: 16th - Hectic final kilometers. Got to the front just in time, but didn't have the legs to finish it off properly. Still, a solid result in my first Pro Tour race with family and friends in attendance.

Date	Race	Winner
1-Jul	Danish Championships	Søren Kragh Andersen
1-Jul	Swiss Championships	Silvan Dietrich
1-Jul	Kazakh Championships	Dinmukhammed Ulysbayev
1-Jul	Canadian Championships	Kristofer Dahl
1-Jul	Norwegian Championships	Edvald Boasson Hagen
1-Jul	USA Championships	Sean Bennett
1-Jul	Russian Championships	Petr Rikunov
1-Jul	Portuguese Championships	José Gonçalves
1-Jul	Polish Championships	Alan Banaszek
1-Jul	Czech Championships	Zdenek Stybar
1-Jul	Ukrainian Championships	Mark Padun
1-Jul	Great Britain Championships	Mark Cavendish
1-Jul	Irish Championships	Sam Bennett
1-Jul	Slovenian Championships	Matej Mohoric
1-Jul	Italian Championships	Gianni Moscon
1-Jul	Slovak Championships	Peter Sagan
1-Jul	French Championships	Marc Sarreau
1-Jul	Austrian Championships	Marco Haller
1-Jul	Spanish Championships	Enric Mas
1-Jul	Belgian Championships	Pieter Serry
1-Jul	S. et des Champions Olympiques	Odd Christian Eiking
1-Jul	German Championships	Marcel Kittel
1-Jul	Dutch Championships	Wout Poels
4-Jul	Sibiu Cycling Tour	Carlos Betancur
6-Jul	GP Internacional Torres Vedras	Anthon Charmig
7-Jul	Tour de France	Egan Arley Bernal
7-Jul	Int. Österreich Rundfahrt	Rafał Majka
8-Jul	Delta Road Race	Brenton Jones
15-Jul	Tour of Qinghai Lake	Tejay Van Garderen
25-Jul	Grand Prix Cerami	Edward Theuns
25-Jul	Prueba Villafranca	Andrey Amador
26-Jul	La Tour Alsace	Pierre Rolland
27-Jul	VOO-Tour de Wallonie	Dylan Teuns
29-Jul	GP Kranj	Fabio Duarte
31-Jul	Circuito de Getxo	Juan Camacho
31-Jul	RideLondon-Surrey Classic	Jasper De Buyst
1-Aug	PostNord Danmark Rundt
1-Aug	Volta a Portugal
4-Aug	Hansa Bygg Kalmar Road Race
4-Aug	Tour de Pologne
4-Aug	Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian
5-Aug	La Poly Normande	Marcus Diamond In
6-Aug	The Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah
7-Aug	Vuelta a Burgos
9-Aug	Czech Cycling Tour	Marcus Diamond In
11-Aug	KOGA Slag om Norg
13-Aug	BinckBank Tour
15-Aug	Tour du Limousin
16-Aug	Arctic Race of Norway
16-Aug	Colorado Pro Classic
19-Aug	EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg
21-Aug	Baltic Chain Tour
21-Aug	GP Stad Zottegem
22-Aug	Arnhem-Veenendaal Classic
23-Aug	Deutschland Tour
25-Aug	Vuelta a España
25-Aug	Omloop Mandel-Leie-Schelde
25-Aug	Bretagne Classic-Ouest France
26-Aug	Ronde van Midden Nederland
26-Aug	Croatia-Slovenia
29-Aug	Druivenkoers - Overijse

Egan Arley Bernal wins back-to-back Tour de France titles as Colombia sweeps the podium. Miguel Angel Lopez finished second for a second year in a row after winning in 2018 and Daniel Felipe Martinez took third.

- Each member gets 3.0 points to spread however they like over the 13 attributes listed above. One post per member.
- Stats work on a decimal system starting at 55.0.
- Stats are bumped up in PCM when they hit that number, ex. 55.9 = 55 in-game, and 61.4 = 61 stat in-game.
- The decimal numbers will remain hidden.
- There is a threshold for each stat when more points are needed to increase that stat. It's start off on a 1-to-1 scale where 1 point equals 1 stat upgrade. However, the scales get exponentially further and further apart the closer that stat gets to the maximum of 85. The increasing scale will also remain a mystery.
- Comment below to provide stat upgrades